The Gap
by ttate-langdon
Summary: Hannah's sixteen. A high school senior, an Apocalypse survivor, a lover, a sister and a fighter. Did I mention that she really loves dimples? FOLLOWS TWD FROM S1xE01.


The gap in my teeth is frustrating, to say the least. It's small and I don't usually notice it, but sometimes I catch my tongue poking at the gap. It shows when I smile, when I laugh, when I talk. When I talk it's the worst, because people watch my gap instead of looking at me. It peers out from between my pink lips, and people can help but notice. It's like that little crack I used to have on an old compact mirror. Small, sure. But annoying as fuck, since it's always catching your eye.

This is what I was thinking about when I heard the first scream.

I was packing my school bag, which was, for once, not being used for school. Tops, books, hats and a ruler… I threw in what I could find. What would Mommy say if she knew I had left my last season Calvin Klein dress behind, to rot with the walkers? She was probably turning in her grave right then, the frigid bitch.

I wiped the sheen of sweat away from my brow, zipping the pink backpack up. I slung it over my shoulder, and I could feel my tongue sliding against the gap.

The others were waiting for me, anxious to get moving. Of course they were. What stupid little high schools freaks we were, in the middle of Atlanta, with no fucking way to get out. Walkers were everywhere, and we had managed to get from our High School to my family's flat. What used to be our flat, rather. They knew my place had what we needed.

When the army infiltrated Atlanta, me and about fifty or so kids from school hid it out in the school building. Of course I had to bring my brother, Nep. Our parents were bitten by walkers in the early days. I can still remember screaming at him not to look. He still did, and we both watched as our parents got eaten.

Well, anyway, we barricaded ourselves on the high school. Eating rotten food from the canteen and sleeping in the English department wasn't nice, to say the least.

But we were confident. We had played the video games, seen the TV shows… read the comics, even. Hell, Zombieland was one of my favourite movies. We thought we knew what we were doing. Of course we were wrong. Our weapons included baseball bats from the school's gym department. A few of the jocks used metal poles they had found around the basements. In a few weeks, our group of fifty survivors has turned into seven high school seniors, and a little kid.

Nep tugged at my cardigan. He was so small and innocent… He must've been shit scared, too. I nodded, and looked around the bright pink bedroom. It was the last time I seen it.

"H-hurry up!" One of the jocks shouted through from the living room.

I lifted Nep, and he cuddled against my side. We walked into the room, people looking through our cupboards.

There were eight of us, including Nep and me. Me, Nep, three cheerleaders, a swimmer named Toby, a geek, and Mary, a Jesus freak who still believes.

"You got stuff, right…?" I asked, looking round at the different faces.

The geeky kid, I think his name was Brian — I can't even remember now, said that he got medicine and tinned broccoli.

I nodded, turning to one of the drawers. It was the knifes and kitchen utensils. Knife wouldn't kill walkers, would they? No, it has to be a blow to the head, and you can't case damage with a tin opener. I shrugged, shoving one of the small butter knifes into my backpack.

"Why?" Nep whispered from my hip. "It's for ice cream."

I smiled slightly, brushing the dark hair away from his forehead. He was always confused between butter and ice cream.

I mentally hit myself. What was I doing with a fucking butter knife? Jesus, he's only six and he's dealing with the apocalypse better than me.

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" I hear Kelly, one of the three cheerleaders, ask. Her voice is nasally, because I'm pretty sure that she got a nose job last summer."How the fuck do you expect us to get out? They're everywh—"

Right then, at that millisecond, I could feel my tongue sliding against the gap in my teeth. Kelly's voice was cut off by a loud, piercing scream. I thought it came from Kelly, but I was wrong. I turned away from the knife drawer and realised that it was Heather, one of the other cheerleaders, that was screaming.

Behind her, on the fire escape, was a walker. It was a middle aged woman, with red hair and blackish blood running out of her mouth. One of her arms was severed, tendons dangling about at the end of her stump.

The walker went crazy, growling and guzzling. My stomach churned and I noticed that the latch to the balcony come fire escape was opened. The walker, swinging her stump arm, dragged itself into my living room.

It went immediately for Heather, who screamed again. Kelly and the other cheerleader ran out onto the fire escape and the geek ran into the hall, locking himself into the bathroom with Mary.

Nep whimpered and the walker grabbed Heather's right shoulder with one hand. Heather was breathing really weird, and I could see her chest rise and fall in a funny pattern. She looked at the walker, and the walker looked back, steady growls rising from its half eaten throat. In a swift motion, the walker shoved Heather towards her. Heather struggled against the walker's grip, screaming. The walker wasted no time in biting down on Heather's scalp.

I covered Nep's eyes, as the disgusting sight unravelled before us. I could feel the sweat coating my forehead. I looked at Toby, the swimmer, my eyes were going blurry. Heather's screams where like something out of a scary movie.

I didn't want to look, but I looked. The walker was tearing fleshy chunks out of Heather's face, gurgling and spitting up blood.

I gripped Nep, running past the scene quickly and on to the fire escape. Toby followed suit.

In a sad way, Heather's untimely death was a great opportunity to run. I really felt like I was obliged to become distraught. Now, when I look back on things, I really hoped Toby and I stayed. Maybe he would've killed the walker with a baseball bat. Heather had definitely turned into a walker. I still feel horrible about it. About what though? That we didn't put her down, or that we didn't stop the walker, I'll never know. I just think we should've done something, instead of running away like a pair of little bitches. We left Heather for dead, but she had saved our lives.

We walked down the fire escape quickly. Nep's face was soaked with tears and we reached the alleyway. Toby ran straight off, going through the chain link fence to turn the corner of the alley and off on to the main street. I don't think he realised he was running into a swarm of walkers.

I could see the walkers had filled the main street entirely, and at the mouth of the alley, some realised Toby had run into them. He fell to the ground, trying to kick them away. They bit at his legs, devouring him. They crowded him in a swarm, a feeding frenzy, until I couldn't see the brunette swimmer anymore. I could hear his screams for help, though.

I see the rest of the street move, a sea of walkers walking down the street. They all break out in a run. I thought that maybe they were chasing after the others.

I cradled Nep, and he hid his face in the nape of my neck. I rubbed his back, knowing that we had to move. To where? That alley was a dead end, and I was not going to go out into a swarm of walkers, armed with a butter knife.

My breathing became laboured, and I started to panic. How long until they finished eating Toby? I walked backwards, away from the walkers who were feeding. I heard whimpers and unstable breaths escape my mouth, when a hand covered itself over my mouth.

I panicked and Nep almost screamed. I thrashed about against the hands, but was gently pushed against the brick wall.

It wasn't a walker, thank god. Instead, we were faced by an Asian guy — who I would later learn was Korean. He wore a red cap which was faded slightly.

He pointed with his free hand, towards the second fire escape in this alley. I nodded slightly.

I let Nep down, ushering him to go first. He didn't ask questions, he didn't scream or worry about how high the ladder was.

I went after that, pulling myself up with the metal poles on either side. My sweaty palms slipped against the cold metal, and I was afraid that I would fall. I'm not the most athletic person… I can't even handle the monkey bars at kiddie parks.

When we reached the first landing, it was clear that the walkers hadn't noticed us at all. They were all still crowded around Toby's mutilated body.

I grabbed Nep's hand. "Don't look." I watched my little brother, who cuddled himself into my leg.

I looked up to the guy. "I'm Hannah." I said, still a little breathless from the climbing and running.

"Glenn." The guy, Glenn, smiled slightly. One of his cheeks had a little dimple. He took of his cap, readjusting his bag strap. "Uh... questions later?"

"Yeah." I agree. "Maybe we should...?" I looked from Glenn to the ladder, thinking that we should get a move on if we didn't want to become zombie chow.

Glenn nodded. "Right."

We both looked up at the ladder, which was incredibly high, for a four story building. I bit my lip, looking down at Nep. Well, it was either that or nothing. I picked the ladder.

"Bright side, it'll be the fall that kills us." Glenn said as he hauled Nep onto the ladder. "I'm a glass half full kinda guy."

I laughed humorously, because I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.


End file.
